Frozen tuna being transhipped in Vidar in Papua New Guinea. Photo: Francisco Blaha
There are high hopes that 14 Pacific countries will be able to better manage their tuna stocks with the help of a major grant from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
The GCF grant, valued at US$156 million, has been secured by Conservation International and the Pacific Community (SPC).
Niue's Minister for Natural Resources Mona Ainu'u told Pacific Waves that it is one of the largest GCF climate funding grants that Pacific Island nations have been able to access.
Ainu'u said the tuna industry is critical for both food and economic security, supporting tens of thousands of jobs in the region.
"This is a really great opportunity for us to enhance and strengthen the work that we have done over the years," she said.
"Any chance that we are able to receive funding support from our partners is absolutely welcome."
The Cook Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu manage one-third of the world's tuna catch.
"Tuna fisheries contribute significantly to governments revenue, [supporting] economic and community developments," Ainu'u said.
SPC director-general Dr Stuart Minchin said Pacific Islands nations provide more than half the world's tuna.
"It is the second biggest GDP earner for our Pacific countries in our region. So tuna is incredibly important to Pacific people.
However, he pointed out that the decline in coastal fish production means the region is relying increasingly on tuna for food security.
"Our region relies heavily on fish, and one of the challenges which this project is addressing is that in our region, because we rely on fish for sustenance, our local reefs systems [and] our coastal fisheries [are] under pressure," Minchin said.
"One of the key parts of this regional tuna program will be to put in fish aggregating devices (FADs) out to sea from the coral reefs so that local fishermen can access the tuna stocks, which is much more sustainable than the local reef fish stocks, to provide food and market fish for their local food security.
"The second part of the project is really doing the science and creating a predictive capability to track much better the impacts of climate change on the tuna fishery."
This work will include cutting-edge work, through partners like CSIRO and FFA (Forum Fisheries Agency) in tracking the genetics of the tuna stock, Minchin explained.
He said this would give them a better picture of the connectivity of different tuna stocks across the region, and predicting the impacts of warming and tuna migration much more accurately.
"So that the countries can take action, change policy, and engage being in front of the curve, rather than just being recipients of the the outcome."
